Toasting to Life
by Fiji The Beggar
Summary: At the Bronze, Spike bumps into someone he wasn't expecting


Title: "Toasting to Life with Death"  
Category: songfic Rated: R (suicide)  
Characters: Spike Continuity: Fiji-verse fic, random time

The Bronze was having a rather average night. There were still quite a few people about, but things had often enough been busier at 2 in the morning.  
Not that Spike complained or anything. He'd spot any demons, vampiric or otherwise, much faster this way.  
He had broken up an idyllic scene between a sire and his fledgeling at one of the more out of the way cemetaries. But other then that, the night had been uneventfull. Well, at least he wasn't patroling the industrial part of town ... it was Buffies turn to creep through warehouse after dusty warehouse.

He looked around the room one last time, nope, evil was not out partying tonight. Mights aswell .  
Spike was suddenly stopped in mid muse when a massive wave of supernatural energy hit him. Vampires aren't especially attuned to this kind of thing so for Spike to notice it, it must have been huge. He instantly becomes nervous, no, nervous is not the word, terrified is more like it. The hairs on the back of his neck weren't just standing up, they were doing an entire Mexican wave.  
Like any creature Spike's mind quickly did a fight or flee estimation and overwhealmingly opted for the latter. Spike, of course, partly because it was the right thing to do and partly because he was one pigheaded bastard, refused to follow the advice of his own subconscious ... no matter how much sence it made.  
Muscles tense, ready to dodge lighting bolts or blasts of fire or whatever, Spike scanned across the room. His eyes fixed on a perfectly ordinary looking bloke. Bland cloathes, ordinary hair, average hight ... yet, Spike instantly knew this was the source of all that energy.  
Nothing and no one Spike ever encountered came to within a million miles of this character ... Not Glory, not Willow at her darkest, not even the bloody powers that be.  
The creature looked at Spike. Mind numbing fear damn near overtook him, RUN NOW his subconscious screamed, but he refused to move. Distract him, Spike reasoned, keep him away from Buffy.  
The thing calmly walked over to Spike. People walked past him, practically bumped into him but none other then Spike seemed to notice him.  
It stopped just within easy speaking distance.

Spike collected all his courage and managed to say, "This the part where we fight?" He was rather surprised at the calmness of his own voice.

"If you insist," the replay came, "I will oblige you."

For a few seconds, neither demon said anything.

Just as Spike was about to go with the good old kick-him-in-the-bollocks aproach, the demon broke the silence, "... or we could sit down and have a drink."

Say what? Spike thought.

"This establishment has a halfway decent housewine."

Spike lifted an eyebrow, then the other followed suit. "Right then!" he practically shouted.

The creature selected a table somewhere in the back while Spike went to fetch a bottle and two glasses. This is your chance to run like hell, Spike thought ... but run where? Somehow he got the impression you couldn't exactly hide from this guy by diving behind the nearest dumpster.

Spike dumped the bottle and glasses on the table and crashed into the seat across from the demon or god or something.  
As he filled both glasses, the creature said, "I know who you are, I've met you a couple of times ... Spike ... William. But I don't suppose you ..."

Suddenly a whole lot of things went click inside Spike's head. "You're Death," he interrupted.

"Very good, yes, I am Death," Death said as he lifted his glass, "now, what shall we drink to."

For the first time since he felt Death's presence, Spike smiled ... a mischievous smile. "How about we drink ... to life."

With quite a bit of elation, Death said, "How wonderfully appropriate."

He lifted his glass even higher and said, "To life!"

"To life," Spike echoed.

After taking a much needed gulp from the admittedly rather good chateau plonk, spike said, "So, you here to do me in?"

Death sipped his wine and replied, "No, you're not on my list right now. And there's no need for me to actually physically be present when someone passes on. That kind of thing happens ... well, automatically for lack of a better word. No, I'm just here to take in the sights, mingle with the oh-so-mortals."

"When am I on your list," Spike inquired.

"Oh, not for a while ..."

Spike wanted to say something, but Death cut him off, "And neither is your slayer, and no I'm not going to tell you anything more on that subject. One tires of all this death talk after a few aeons, you know"  
Death suddenly snatched the bottle from the table. Barely a second later a drunk bumped into their table. The drunk bawled something that might just as easily have been an apology as a rather colourfull curse.

"I often wonder what makes people destroy themselves like that," Death said, "It's asif they're trying to find out how much damage their bodies can take before they expire."

"Yeah, sure," Spike said absentmindedly, not really being in the mood to discuss the drinking habits of some random drunk.  
But when Death said, "He's one of my customers tonight, you know." Something stirred deep inside him. He looked over to the drunk. He'd found himself a fairly quite corner to collapse in.

"Alcohol poisoning, it's a miracle he's not dead yet," Death said very matter of factly.

Spike watched the man, he was just lying there, people passed him by without noticing him. Two boys were making out barely 4 feet away from him. He was dying. Spike had seen hundreds of people die, thousands even. It hardly ever bothered him. But this no name man dying in a crowded Bronze got to Spike. Death wasn't supposed to be planned. Death was supposed to be sudden.

"Relax William, There's no way you can save him. Even if he were in a fully staffed and equiped emergency room, rigth now, he'd still die," Death said quitly.

Spike forced himself to look away. He thanked whatever god bother to keep track of massive bastards like himself that he couldn't hear the man's heartbeat peter out.

Death refilled both glasses and toasted again, "To life."

"What? yeah, life and all that," Spike replied.

The fun had very much gone out of the whole deal and Spike was beginning to think exit strategy.

Then he noticed a girl of maybe 20 walking up to their table. She seemed oddly oblivious to the music and the people around her. Her face was almost entirely expressionless, her eyes dead. Spike had seen this before. When Angelus had had his way with an entire family except for one to tell the tale.  
The girl stopped right next to their table, still looking off into oblivion.

Without looking at her, Death simply said, "Can I help you."

The gril stayed silent but she nodded slightly. Then she walked on.  
Death dreined his glass and got up. "It's been a pleasure, William, but I have to leave now." He started to walk off in the opposite direction of the girl.

Spike jumped up. He grabbed Death by the shoulder and spun him around. "What! What's going on"  
He grabbed Death by the shirt, ignoring the inconceivable power this thing possessed. "What have you done to her! What's wrong with her?"

Death made absolutely no effort to break free from Spike's hold. He calmly replied, "She's the kind of person who thinks she's seen everything this life has to offer and has decided she likes none of it. It's really none of your concern."

"Bugger!" Spike screamed as he realised what that ment. He spun around but couldn't see the girl anywhere. Turning back, he saw that Death had pulled a little disappearing act of his own.  
"Not my concern," Spike gritted. She is NOT dying tonight! Spike told himself, I'll be even more damned then usual if I'm gonna let that bastard take her.  
Think back, what did she smell like? Come on! What kind of vampire are you! There it was, the thick scent of clothes that have been worn for days on end, of dried sweat and cheap soap from public bathrooms. The smell came from ... THERE. Now that he had her smell, no amount of spilled beer, cheap perfume and dried ice fog could mask her trail.  
He took off through the crowd, pushing people out of the way.  
The back door! He crashed through it. Her smell was gone. Was it all the garbage out here? No, she still had to be inside somewhere. Spike dove back inside.  
Two doors ... the one on the left proved to lead to a storage room. The other one lead to a stairwell. Leaping from floor to floor Spike shot up to the top floor.  
With way more force then strickly necesary, he smashed open the door to the roof.

There she was, right at the edge of the roof, looking down. Death was standing next to her, facing her. Neither of them said anything.  
Death looked at him, shook his head no.  
It only convinced Spike even more that he was going to save this girl and no force in the entire fucking universe was going to stop him.  
He hurled himself forward with all the force his vampiric muscles could produce. He had taken barely two steps when the roof and everyone on it was suddenly gone. Spike found himself soaring through the air. He flew into some wall with such force that he actually stayed pinned ot the wall for a split second before pummeling down to the pavement.  
Did I black out? was the first thing that went through Spike's mind. How far did he fly? Was there still time? Get up you worthless bloodsucker!  
Deep inside, he knew that the girl had long since jumped. He tried to get up, tried to ignore his muscles screaming for some much needed down time. He managed to crawl over to the nearest wall and sit upright. Just a second, he told himself, and then I'll .  
Then, he saw a lone figure comeing towards him ... Death.  
Spike quitely waited for Death to come right up to him ... not that there was much of anything he could have done otherwise. "Is she ..." Spike said, surprised at how weak his own voice sounded.

Death kneeled down next to Spike, and softly spoke "It was not your place to save her."

"And now you're going to do me in?"

"No, William, everyone has his own time and not even I will change that"  
Death look away for a second, "It was wrong of me to tell you about their deaths. But I couldn't let you save either of them."

"I could have saved her, I'll have you know."

"No William, you could have stopped her from jumping, but saving her? No that would have taken years of non stop effort ... You couldn't have saved her."

Spike tried to get up, but most of his body was still perfectly content doing nothing at all. Collapsing back against the wall he sighed, "You're a right bastard, you know that?"

"Yes, I suppose I am." Death got up and look off into the distance, "It's about time I was off"  
He took two steps, then, with his back still turned to Spike, he said, "I'll leave you with one last pice of advice. You can never save them all, William"  
He turned to Spike, "But you can also never save too many."

"Sod off, bastard."

"Goodbye, William, It'll be a while before we meet again." Death walked away, dissappearing into thin air after a douzen steps or so.

Eventually, Spike managed to will his body into getting up.  
By the time Buffy met him in his crypt, he could mostly move normally again. With him aching all over and her dead tired, there was little more then sleep on the programme. When she was lying in his arms, she finally asked, "What happend to you anyway"  
Spike replied, "I toasted to life with Death"  
He kissed her in the forehead, closed his eyes and went to sleep, leaving Buffy to wonder what the hell he ment. 


End file.
